


it was me who was discovered

by destiny919



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Comedy, Drowning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Love Confessions, Miraculous Side Effects, yes you heard me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:02:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28824900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destiny919/pseuds/destiny919
Summary: It's winter, which means Tikki is extra sleepy and her powers are at a low ebb, which means Marinette is extra sleepy, which means Chat Noir spends twenty minutes fighting an akuma alone before Alya finally calls her to squeal about the great footage she's getting and Marinette is woken up by her phone.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 15
Kudos: 288





	it was me who was discovered

**Author's Note:**

> me: im 98% done with this fic  
> that 2%: [four times longer than the preceding 98]
> 
> i wrote the first part of this a while ago and then i looked at it today and i was like 'oh i can finish this real quick' and then i spent the next three solid hours writing without pause
> 
> title from venus by sleeping at last, which is PERFECT for this fic go check it out

It's winter, which means Tikki is extra sleepy and her powers are at a low ebb, which means Marinette is extra sleepy, which means Chat Noir spends twenty minutes fighting an akuma alone before Alya finally calls her to squeal about the great footage she's getting and Marinette is woken up by her phone.

"Tikki!" she shrieks as soon as she manages to escape Alya. "Spots on!" 

Ladybug comes out of the skylight like a cannon ball and swings over the rooftops faster than she ever has before, all the way to the Rue de Rivoli where she arrives just in time to see her partner get dumped in the Seine.

_ Chat can't swim,  _ she thinks immediately, diving in after him without even glancing at the actual akuma. He's confessed to her that although he's a fine swimmer as a civilian, it seems that those skills went out the window the second he gains ears and a tail. 

Chat can't swim, and Ladybug can't stand cold, and it's winter, and the Seine is going to be freezing, and now they're both going to drown. 

Her limbs seize up as soon as she hits the water next to a flailing Chat, and she feels her eyes droop shut almost immediately. "No, Tikki," she mumbles. "You  _ can't..." _

"My lady," Chat gasps. "My lady, the water isn't that cold - for someone who isn't - " his head sinks under the water and Ladybug is ready to sink right after him until he emerges again, and she just latches on. "If we were in our regular forms -"

"We can't..." Ladybug mumbles, using all of her energy to hold him up. 

"We don't have a choice!" Chat snaps. "Claws in!"

A flash of green light, and a soaked Adrien Agreste is holding Ladybug afloat, kicking strong legs and shaking blond hair out of his green-green-green eyes. 

"Oh, you _cannot_ be serious," Ladybug slurs. 

"Nice to see you too, my lady," Adrien says patiently, effortfully starting to tow her to shore. "My name is Adrien. Now, care to share?"

“God, you’re pretty,” she says.

"Flattering, Buginette, but not an answer. If you could  _ please _ make this a little easier on your de-powered kitten, he would very much appreciate it."

"Oh, alright," Ladybug mutters, too tired and cold to care about her identity or her crush, which astonishes her on some level. "Tikki, spots off."

As soon as her suit disappears, she wakes up just enough to realize what they've done. "Oh no."

Adrien beams at her, like the sun coming out from behind the thick clouds to shine directly in her exhausted eyes. "Hey, Marinette! Fancy meeting you here!"

"Oh god."

They heave themselves onto a sandy bank hidden by a stone wall and some leafless shrubbery. In the not-so-distant distance, the akuma roars and takes out another tree. 

"What do you eat?" Adrien asks patiently, and it takes Marinette a moment to realize he's not talking to her but rather a barely conscious Tikki.

"Cookies! Sugar!" a tiny black thing is ordering imperiously. She can’t remember its name right now. It's cuddling Tikki. "Fucking  _ patisserie,  _ I don't care!"

"Your kwami swears?" Marinette asks. 

"Yeah," Adrien says. "Yours doesn't?"

"No."

"Well, like kwami, like Chosen, I guess."

"Huh," Marinette says. "Wait a second.  _ You  _ swear?"

"How many times has Chat Noir fallen off the Eiffel Tower and screamed obscenities all the way down?"

"...A lot. But Adrien never swears!"

"Because Adrien has a very strict father and a public image," the famous model explains patiently. "Real Adrien spends the entire time you're playing co-op on Mecha Strike cursing a blue streak."

"Oh," Marinette says.

"You're still pretty tired, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I still like to curl up in a patch of sunlight when I'm out of costume, so I guess it's to be expected."

"Uh huh."

"You'd be freaking out pretty bad otherwise."

"Oh yeah."

Marinette realizes then that Adrien had somehow gotten them all the way to her bakery and she was still too out of it to notice. The Seine must have already been carrying them downstream while they tried not to drown.

The bell chimes as Adrien carries her in and cheerfully greets her parents. "Got knocked in the Seine by the akuma. A nasty one, isn't it? I think they even took Ladybug and Chat Noir out for a little bit!"

Sabine quickly ushers both of them upstairs and shoves blankets and hot chocolate in their arms. "I'll be back to check on you both in ten minutes!"

Marinette isn't sure but she thinks her mother might have winked at them. "Was that about our secret identities or about my crush on you?" she mumbles.

"Do you think she - wait, your  _ what?" _

"Aw, heck." Marinette snatches up a mug and starts slurping the hot chocolate. Warmth plus sugar equals miserably lucid Mari. "Can you forget I just said that?"

"I really, really can't, Princess."

"Ugh, whatever. You have a crush on Ladybug."

"You know," Adrien says slowly, "this is not at all how I envisioned revealing our identities."

"That makes two of us," Marinette says, not hesitating before drinking his hot chocolate too.

"My imagination involved more of the Eiffel Tower at sunset and more kissing and less cold-induced nonchalance."

"Sounds romantic."

"Oh, it was," Adrien says dreamily. "There was always a lot of swooning, too."

"I do not  _ swoon, _ kitty." This is a flat-out lie. Marinette can now admit to herself that even before she knew he was Adrien, if Chat kissed her one night while they watched the sunset from their favorite spot on the Tower, she would have immediately lost all feeling in her legs and fallen straight into his open arms, with no intention of ever emerging. And if Adrien had kissed her, obviously she would have immediately lost consciousness and been rushed to the ER.

And been completely unable to actually enjoy the kissing part or talk to Adrien about their feelings. Unlike Chat, with whom she could have and would have gladly discuss the deepest parts of her heart for hours. Just no names. What is she supposed to do when confronted with both?

Regain just enough warmth and circulation to blush furiously while she finishes his hot chocolate, apparently, and he responds, "Yeah, I meant me. The past fifteen minutes would beg to differ about that, though. And actually, a few times when I've been around you as Marinette."

"Huh!" Marinette laughs, a hysterical note ringing clear in it. "Imagine that."

"So I guess it's just Ladybug who doesn't," he says musingly. "Makes sense, after all. Marinette is also pretty clumsy."

"Adrien!" she squeaks. She knows, but  _ hey.  _

He flashes her a cheeky grin. "Now I know what to say next time you trip into my arms." Which does seem to happen an awful lot. At least now Marinette knows why  _ he _ always seems to be there to  _ cat _ ch her. 

"Oh god, what?" She tugs the blanket tighter around her shoulders and looks at him from the corner of her eye. 

Adrien leans in, just far enough that she has to go a little bit crosseyed and look up at him. God, he's tall. It's something she'd noticed on him both as Chat and Adrien, and her response to both times was more similar (read: identical) than she's ever been willing to admit.  _ "Falling _ for me, my lady?"

Marinette reaches up to lightly shove his face away the same way she might have if he used that line on Ladybug. The difference is that now she also simultaneously lets out another inarticulate squeak (honestly, was wielding Mullo even once enough for something to rub off on her?) and blushes harder than ever. And Chat -  _ Adrien -  _ just laughs and laughs, moving with her push and falling onto his back on the couch, letting his legs come up to splay over her lap. Just by muscle memory, one of her hands comes to rest on his ankle and she leans over towards him on her free arm, hand within holding distance of his. 

"Very funny, minou," she says, blush dying down a bit at this return to what felt the most normal, even without masks. "But no hero nicknames in school. I could probably get away with calling you kitty - everyone knows you love cats and I love Chat Noir." Too late, she realizes what those words could sound like now, rather than what she meant about how all their classmates know about Marinette's soft spot for the often-overlooked other Hero of Paris. Alya always says she 'stans' him. 

Adrien doesn't comment on it, however. Instead, he just pouts at her. "And everyone knows I love Ladybug!"

She doesn't comment either, even though her stomach earns a perfect 10 from the international panel of judges for its floor routine set to Megalovania. "Unfortunately, everyone also knows that I've always been a stickler about shipping real people," Marinette does point out. "Basically imitating 'Ladynoir' is going to raise some questions."

There's no reply at all, however. He just gives her a slow, devastating grin, sitting up on his elbows. 

"Whaaat?" she whines, huddling deeper in her blanket. 

"Imitating Ladynoir is only about shipping real people if we're shipping ourselves," Adrien points out. "Or, you know. Our civilian selves."

"...Do you?" she asks, voice remarkably steady. "As our civilian selves?" Like he said,  _ everyone _ knows Adrien loves Ladybug. But does he love Marinette?

It's very unfair for her to ask without answering the question herself first, she is aware. Everyone knows Marinette loves Chat Noir, yes, but nobody knows about that disastrous day at her house, and Adrien has probably figured out that was a ruse by now, so he actually understands the sentiment how she meant it at the time: she loves him as her friend and partner, and will never allow anyone to talk down about him, which isn't really helpful in this conversation. Adrien definitely does  _ not _ know about Marinette's debilitating crush on him. He has less information than she does, and it's truly cowardly of her to not rectify that first. But Ladybug has never been the brave one between them.

"Of course," Adrien says, like that's not a huge deal or anything. Marinette holds her breath against her will. "But I've never been able to...it would have felt disloyal to both of you, if I tried to date you while I still loved my lady. But you  _ are _ my lady!" There's that smile again, like the  _ sun, _ and it steals away the breath she knows damn well she was holding. 

"Yeah." She smiles back, still tentative even when she just wants to dive forward and kiss him until they're  _ both _ breathless. "I am. And you're my chaton."

Adrien sits up all the way, until he leans down to rest his forehead on hers. It's not an unfamiliar pose for them - Chat has found that it's very helpful for soothing Ladybug when she has an anxiety or panic attack. It's another thing she's never allowed herself to think about too much. "I love you," he says. "Romantically, but...in every way. And I want to have anything you feel for me in return."

"Chat," she whispers, "I feel  _ everything _ for you. You're my partner and my best friend, you're my crush, my  _ hero. _ And I love you. I'm  _ in _ love with you. God, I'm so in love with you."

Adrien picks up her hand off his ankle and presses it to his lips. "From the second you told Hawkmoth to eat shit," he says hoarsely.

"I did  _ not _ tell him to do that-"

"I've been in love with you," he finishes. "And its only gotten stronger over time, even when it hurt."

"I'm sorry I hurt you," she says in a tiny voice. "I'm sure it doesn't mean much, but every time I turned you down it hurt me too, and it just got more difficult." Marinette laughs wetly, the tears starting to come despite or perhaps because of how jumbled her emotions are, between terror and elation and devastation and relief more intense than cancelling plans. "Rejecting you on that rooftop was the hardest thing I've ever done."

"Why?" Adrien asks. "Why didn't you say yes? Was it because of your feelings for me?"

"Yes and no," Marinette hums. "You know, that night I was actually crushed you hadn't shown up for ice cream at Andre's?"

He looks horrified. "Oh god, that's right.  _ I'm _ that guy who kept breaking your heart!"

"No, kitty," she says quietly.  _ "I _ kept breaking it. And breaking yours at the same time, which is much worse."

"No it's not!"

Marinette shakes her head, their foreheads still touching and faces very close. It's strange and exhilarating to be so near and looking at his ordinary, if brilliant, green eyes and round black pupils, instead of radioactive sclera and inhuman slits, also known as the most comforting sight in the world. Adrien's are rapidly catching up, she can already tell. 

"You never broke my heart," she says. "How could you? I never actually told you how I felt. Every time I tried, I..." Marinette swallows. "Every time, I left a way out. Some way it could go wrong or...allow me to distance myself. The birthday gift I was too nervous to just hand you. The poem I wrote. The love letter I tried to give you instead of just saying it out loud, and then accidentally gave you  _ Master Fu's prescription!" _

He laughs. "I knew that wasn't yours, don't worry."

"If it actually had been, I would have either confessed the truth on the spot and given you the real note or else moved to Singapore to live with Maman's family," Marinette says.

"Father's business has an office in Singapore," Adrien tells her. "I would have visited."

Marinette groans and hides her face in his shoulder. "Plus the wax statue thing," she says, muffled. "That was humiliating, and then I  _ lied to your face." _

"Well I definitely don't blame you for  _ that.  _ It's not exactly how I'd want to confess, either."

"I've lied to you way too much," she mutters. "And here I am begging your help against Lila, like a massive hypocrite."

He goes rigid very suddenly, and Marinette fears the worst.  _ "Lila,"  _ he snarls, his chest rumbling like one of the real cat noises he makes. "I was going along with our deal to keep you safe, but-"

"Your what." He made a  _ deal _ with  _ Lila?  _ That, that is actually the worst!

Adrien looks a bit sheepish. "I...may have threatened her a little bit into clearing your name after she got you expelled. But I also had to agree that she could keep modeling with me."

She stares at him. And then she bursts into tears.

"My lady!" Adrien gasps, wrapping his arms around her without a moment's hesitation, picking her up slightly to switch their position and slide his legs under hers. "It's ok, it's ok! I'm not going back on it, she won't get you expelled again!"

Marinette sniffles hugely. "No, you sweet, self-sacrificing,  _ silly _ kitten. You are absolutely going back on that deal and not modeling with her anymore. I've seen the way she clings to you and you hate it. I'm crying because you... I always thought both Adrien and Chat Noir were the most amazing boys I knew. And then it was like ok, you're the same person, you're equally amazing. And now like five minutes later I'm just knocked over by realizing no, you're not equally amazing, you're both Adrien's amazingness and Chat's amazingness stacked on top of each other in one perfect,  _ perfect _ boy that I'm never going to deserve!"

"Well, that's just not true."

"25,913 times, Adrien," she says, digging her nails into her palms.

"Oh, fuck me running," Adrien mutters. "Ok, I...really don't know what to say about that. I haven't even processed that whole thing myself. I've relived it like nightly for the past two months, of course, but-"

"What?" Marinette chokes out.

"Fuck," Adrien repeats, with feeling. "Ok. Yes. I've had nightmares about it, but even before Desperada I already had nightmares about losing you, like, every night! So it's fine!"

She makes a noise like a dying bird, and he hugs her closer. "Ok, it's not fine," he concedes. "But what can we do? I think having frequent nightmares is a known occupational hazard of being a superhero and seeing the person you love most in the world in constant danger."

"Or seeing him die," she whispers.

"Ah shit," he says. "Yeah. You...get them too."

She snorted, which less than halfway through turned into a real honking snort and shuddering exhale while more tears streamed down her cheeks. "I don't think I got more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep for at least two weeks after Time Breaker. Every time I closed my eyes I would feel you fading away in my arms no matter how tightly I tried to hold on. And when I woke up all I wanted was to hold you for real, alive and solid."

Adrien leans in and kisses a tear away from the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you to do that. I definitely would have slept better, too."

She laughs, an ugly wet thing, and leans her head on his shoulder. "Oh, I have  _ much _ worse ones now."

Stroking her hair, Adrien says, "Well, at least now you can call me or something? I'll probably have had one too."

"Or," Marinette says in a low voice, "you could already be here."

His hand's gentle motion in her hair only hesitates for half a moment. "Yeah," he says roughly, "that's a possibility."

"I know you don't like sleeping at home," she says, thinking about what Chat Noir  _ has _ told her about his sleeping habits. "And...I've been told my skylight looks  _ very _ inviting." By Chat Noir, as Marinette.

"It does," Adrien agrees, resting his cheek on her head. "Though that might have something to do with the beautiful princess waiting for me inside."

"Waiting for you, huh?"

"Mhmmm. She can't sleep without me. Terrible nightmares."

"Oh no," Marinette murmurs. "I hope she has a big bed with lots of cover to hide from nosy parents."

_ "I _ hope she likes to cuddle, because I do."

"The answer to that one seems pretty obvious," she says, looking at them pressed together tighter than sardines. Anything less, she thinks, will now feel terribly far away.

"Had to check," Adrien replies. "I'm not used to getting everything I want."

She lifts her head to press it against his again, staring hard into his eyes. "Well, you'd better  _ get _ used to it now, because I'm going to spoil you rottener than Chloe."

"Only if I get to do the same in return. And I'm the one with a limitless credit card." He smirks at her.

"Oh, but kitty," Marinette coos. "I know your secret!"

Adrien looks between them, out of costume. "Well, yeah," he says.

"No, no. I know that material objects mean nothing to you," Marinette says matter-of-factly. "And  _ I _ have a limitless store of love and affection to give you instead."

He slowly let his head tip forward onto her shoulder. "Ok," he mumbles, voice cracking. "You win this round."

"That said," Marinette adds, "Alya knows my taste in jewelry pretty well. If you want to investigate that for any reason."

"Can't think of one, nope," he says. "Nothing I buy for you will mean half as much."

"Yes, it will," Marinette says without leaving room for argument. "It will mean everything, because it's from  _ you. _ Come with me." On impulse, she stands up out of his lap, leaving Adrien looking as bereft as she also feels now, but she holds out her hand. He takes it and she leads them upstairs to her bedroom, where she inclines her head. Adrien takes her meaning immediately, of course, and nimbly climbs up to her loft while she gets one of her most prized possessions. It's not on her person simply because she left the house in such a hurry when Alya told her about the akuma attack.

When Marinette joins Adrien up on her bed, she wordlessly holds out the beaded lucky charm he gave her. "I usually take it with me everywhere," she says.

Without breaking their eye contact, Adrien digs in his jeans pocket and comes up with the clunky original she gave him months ago. "I  _ always _ take it with me everywhere."

She makes a face at him instead of kissing him, for some reason. "Well, excuse me for forgetting my purse in the rush to rescue you from the Seine."

Adrien stares at her, deadpan. 

"Ok, fine, in the rush to just dive right after you and end up making you save both of us instead!"

"I love you," he says, with a fondness that makes her chest seize up even more than the actual words.

"I love you too," she manages to reply steadily.

They sit there on her bed a while longer, quiet, holding their lucky charms and looking at each other. "So, uh," Adrien says. "Are we gonna like, kiss?"

Marinette bursts out laughing. "And here I thought you were a romantic!" she cackles.

"I am!" Adrien insists. "I just had to make sure all my  _ very romantic planning _ wasn't going to be for naught!"

"Well," she says, trying not to stutter, "I, uh. It's definitely not. Going to be for naught. Not for naught."

"Ok." Adrien frowns pensively for a moment, and then lights up. "I've got it!" 

Marinette smiles back at him helplessly. "Lay it on me." She means his romantic plan, not a kiss. Though she wouldn't be averse, exactly. Especially since then she can make fun of him for not actually having one.

"Hey, Mari," he says softly, holding out his arms. "Come here?"

Heart in her throat and ready to fly out her mouth and land in Adrien's hands at any moment, Marinette scooches over until she's close enough for him to scoop her into his lap. He just hugs her for a long moment, and she almost starts crying again. "My lady," he whispers in her ear, "what sound do hedgehogs make when they kiss?"

She blinks. "...What?"

_ "Ouch!" _

"Oh," she says, "oh my god. Chat, no."

"Why shouldn't you kiss on January 1st?"

"Please, chaton, anything but this!" She buries her head in his chest.

"Because it's the first date!" He's giggling. "You know, sloths  _ never  _ kiss on the first date." A pause, as Marinette braces herself. "They like to take it  _ slow." _ She groans. "Why did the diode kiss the capacitor?"

"Oh my god, you nerd."

"It couldn't  _ resistor." _ He sounds incredibly pleased with himself. "Hey, my lady, how do flowers kiss?"

"Nooooo." She's laughing so hard she can barely breathe. 

"With their tulips!"

Still grinning, she grabs him by the collar and tugs his head down to press her lips to his. The world stops turning for about two solid minutes. 

When they finally pull apart, Adrien mumbles, "I  _ knew _ puns would be the way to your heart."

"...I hate that I'm not in a position to deny that." Marinette definitely doesn't hate what position she  _ is _ in, still curled in Adrien's lap, flushed from their kiss. 

She's just leaning in for another one when Tikki finally wakes up, having taken this entire time to get warm with Plagg's help and eat enough cookies to get her strength back. 

"Marinette!" she says. "Are you alright? Oh - hi, Adrien."

"Hello, Tikki," Adrien says bemusedly, raising an eyebrow at Tikki's non-reaction to their apparent identity reveal.

"Tikki!" her chosen says. "Adrien and I found out each other's identities!"

"Marinette-"

"And we love each other! And we kissed!"

"I can see that, Mari-"

"You're not mad, are you?"

"Marinette!" the kwami shrieks.  _ "There's still an akuma!" _

**Author's Note:**

> marinette: [calls him "kitty" at school]  
> entire class: MARINETTE FURRY CONFIRMED


End file.
